


Two Kates are Better Than One

by phoenixyfriend



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Loki: Agent of Asgard, Spider-Man (Ultimateverse), Young Avengers
Genre: (To a small degree), (sort of), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Multi, Secret Wars (2015)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 16:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3943003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meeting yet another evil version of herself in the middle of a nigh-deserted New York City isn't really the best thing to happen in Kate's recent history, but at least this time the other Kate is little more than a child and can't be held accountable for her actions. Mostly.</p><p>Kate's keeping her around, just in case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Kates are Better Than One

**Author's Note:**

> Please keep in mind that this was written prior to A-Force and Ultimate End and Spider-Verse Volume 2 came out. At the time I wrote this, only the first two issues of Secret Wars had come out.
> 
> I doubt that some of the information that I've built into this story regarding Secret Wars is accurate, in particular the stuff about Manhattan. It's probably still a bustling metropolis in Secret Wars. But I like this better. I like nigh-abandoned cities. I also like Agent Loki more than New Loki, whom I barely understand, so I've simply written Agent Loki with a side of magical amnesia and an arguably not-quite-sober demeanor. I've also cherry-picked a lot of the information regarding Battleworld's political set-up because, as mentioned, we barely know anything yet.
> 
> Please keep in mind that it's been a while since I read Ultimate Spider-Man. I may not have gotten their characterization completely right.
> 
> Earth-199999: Marvel Cinematic Universe (Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc.)  
> Earth-10005: Fox's recent X-Men movies  
> TRN-414: X-Men movies post Days of Future Past.  
> Rest of the notes are at the bottom.

It’s raining.

Kate’s driving down the street on her old motorbike, and while the helmet keeps her vision more or less clear and her head more or less dry, there’s a cold trickle of water making its way down the back of her neck and towards her shirt.

It’s annoying.

But the rain isn’t important, not the way the world currently is. Battleworld has changed everything, and she can’t often tell who remembers the way things used to be and who doesn’t. She remembers. Her sister doesn’t. As far as almost all civilians are concerned, Battleworld with God Doom is all the planet’s ever been, and the heroes aren’t much better. So far, the only ones Kate's run into that remember what used to be are her own team and a scant handful of others.

(Clint doesn’t remember. Kate closes her eyes after talking to him, takes a deep breath, and shoves him to the back of her mind. He’s a ‘heretic,’ but he doesn’t _remember_. It isn’t enough.)

Kate’s on her way to the reclaimed Bishop Publishing House on 616’s half of Manhattan, the abandoned one that served as their base on and off since they started. Teddy and the twins should already be there, and if Tommy’s there, David probably is too. Noh’s still on his way, judging by the most recent texts on her phone, and America’s caught on some distant island dealing with a giant shark and She-Hulk.

Kate doesn’t really want to know.

She skids around a corner, cursing a little as the rain makes the bike wobble, but she doesn’t fall, so it isn’t enough to make her let up off the gas and slow down. There’s a spray of water following her wherever she goes, and she’d be feeling guilty about the spray hitting civilians, but it’s mid-afternoon and the streets are deserted.

As something shifts in the corner of her eye, she is reminded of why. There are _things_ lurking in the streets of the remodeled New York, creatures and spirits and things she can’t take out with just a tricky arrow and some hella good aim. No one is out now, not unless they’re a super-hero out on business—

Kate’s eyes widen as she sees three teenagers, barely more than kids, stumble out of an alleyway.

—or someone that somehow only just arrived on the new world.

She skids to a stop next to them, right under the overhanging awning of a closed-down shop, and pulls her helmet off. She’s pretty sure that her hair is a mess and that she doesn’t exactly look like the super-hero she’s supposed to be, but that doesn’t matter right now. There are two boys, one black and one Asian, and a girl that looks strangely familiar.

“What are you kids doing out here?” Kate demands, one hand swiping her hair behind her ear and activating the comm unit she’s got on. If nothing else, Noh-Varr’s listening on the channels since it all goes through the ship before hitting anything else. “Get home before something catches you.”

“I…” One of the boys, the black one, looks around with confusion and slowly dawning panic on his face. He’s got a knock-off Spider-man uniform on under his jacket, with black where the blue should be. “I don’t know where we are.”

“Miles,” the other boy mutters, stepping forward and grabbing the first boy’s jacket sleeve. He doesn’t continue the sentence, but there’s some kind of unspoken communication going on, and it annoys Kate that she doesn’t know what they’re saying. Her eyes track over to the girl, who’s standing off to the side and further back, hunched in on herself and looking vaguely ashamed of something.

“Okay,” Kate says, clapping her hands to get their attention. If they don’t recognize things, then they probably remember. She doesn’t know why. She doesn’t entirely care. “Names and dimension? If you know the number we can get this done quickly.”

The boys glance at each other and the girl shakes her head, even though no one’s looked at her. The first boy, probably called Miles if the earlier conversation is any indication, looks Kate in the eye and starts giving out names. “I’m Miles, he’s Ganke, and she’s Katie.”

The girl winces. Kate’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t comment on it. There’s time for that later. “Right. As far as you need to know, I’m Hawkeye.”

“You what?” Ganke’s staring at her in shock. Might be from 1610. Might be from 2099. Might just be sheltered.

“I’m Hawkeye.” Kate repeats. Going by her codename will be easier than having to deal with the ‘Kate or Katie’ nonsense, like she had in high school. “Now, do you know which dimension you’re from? It’s probably either 1610 or 616, but some other options have been cropping up.”

The kids shake their heads, and Kate sucks in a breath. Her eyes scan across the area around them, and the shadows are shifting. It’s not enough for her to be super worried yet, but her hand reaches back and comes to a rest on her bow anyway. The kids pick up on it, and Miles, at least, seems ready for a fight. Might be a super, then. It would explain the spandex.

“I’m not sure.” Miles says. “Is there anything you use as identifying features?”

Kate thinks through the differences she knows about from one dimension to the other, and most of them are pretty superficial, but… “The big superhero team with Iron Man and Thor and Captain America and all them. Are they called the Avengers or the Ultimates?”

“Ultimates,” all three of them respond immediately. Kate clenches her jaw and closes her eyes.

“That’ll be 1610, then. That’s on the other side of the new Manhattan.” She looks around again, and the shadows look like they’re getting more solid. They need to leave soon. “I’d offer you a ride but I can only take two, and even that’s a stretch.”

The kids all look at each other, and even little Katie is involved this time. Kate’s wishing they’d just hurry up. Miles turns to her, “You said you’re a hero, right?”

“Among the best.” Sort of, but she’s definitely among the best of the baseline humans. “Yeah, I’m a hero. You’re going to tell me that the spandex actually means something?”

Miles shrugs with an awkward smile and pulls his jacket off, tying it around his waist and pulling his mask up and into place.

She sighs and shakes her head. Ever since the disastrous Latveria mission, she hasn’t exactly approved of the younger teen heroes, but there isn’t much of a choice right now. “Can you carry anyone?”

“I can take Ganke.” He says, voice barely muffled by the mask, and puts his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Great. Katie? You’re with me. Take the helmet.” Kate swings her leg over the bike and waits for the younger girl to climb on up behind her and wrap her arms around Kate’s waist, tight and quite possibly terrified.

“Let’s go.” Kate hits the gas and they head for Manhattan-1610.

o.o.o.o.o

Of course, things aren’t that easy.

They run into small-time criminals a few times, people trying to take advantage of the grim and the quiet, but Kate takes care of them and leaves some of Hill’s SHIELD trackers on them, ready for pick-up and hopefully not ripe for the shadows’ picking. What she doesn’t finish within the first few seconds, Miles does. They work well together, but there’s no time to play around with the fights and see how good he is. Kate wants to get these kids somewhere safe, and the closer they get to the blurred border between one New York and the other, the less likely getting them home looks.

“Loki, stop!” The voice carries, angry and plaintive and worried, and Kate’s ears prick up at it. That’s new. That’s _important_. No one’s seen Loki in eight months, and they’ve certainly been looking. The main reason they’ve been looking for as long as they have is the voice in question, actually. Without Verity Willis, no one would have realized that Loki had gone missing at all. “Dammit, just listen to me for a second!”

“Sorry kids,” she tosses over her shoulder, “but it looks like I’m going to have to take a detour.”

She makes a sharp left, following where she thinks she last heard Verity’s shouting, and skids to a stop again. The rain hasn’t stopped, but it’s slowed to a drizzle, at least. Her hair is sopping wet and plastered to her head anyway.

“You!” The Loki that shouts and points at her doesn’t look entirely like the one she knows, but he’s similar enough that she’s pretty sure this is still her Loki. “I… I’m supposed to know you.”

He trails off, looking thoughtful, and Kate turns a raised eyebrow in Verity’s direction. “Should I ask?”

“Amnesia, I think?” Verity looks distressed, at the very least. She’s barely dressed for this weather, more like she only just grabbed a coat and boots when pulled out of her apartment in surprise. Kate assumes that’s what happened, given that Loki’s finally back. “I don’t know. He seems to recognize things vaguely, but everything’s kind of…”

“Distanced!” Loki butts in, and the grin he’s wearing is almost crazed. Kate’s starting to understand why Verity looks so anxious. “All the memories are blotted and mushy and far away, you know. I thought I hit a reset button, but I think I just got a bad eraser instead, like the kind you use in elementary school and then cry about because it ruins your drawings.”

There’s a stretched-out silence that is only interrupted by an explosion and a roar in the direction of Manhattan-1610. _A Hulk_ , Kate thinks dully, because when is life ever easy? _I thought they were all in Greenland._

“Right, you two are coming with me.” Kate slips her hand up behind her ear and presses a button. “Hawkeye to Marvel Boy, do you copy?”

“ _—bzzt—I copy, Hawkeye. What do you need?”_

“Loki’s back, I’ve got three civilians and a super from 1610, and the only transport is my bike and said super. I don’t think Loki’s in any condition to be helping out on that front.” Kate lets the silence do the rest.

“ _—bzzt—Are you requesting a pick-up, Hawkeye?_ ”

“Yes, I am, Marvel Boy.” Kate revs her engine and looks up to the nearest road sign. 80th and Third. The maps of Manhattan may have changed, but not enough for her to lose sight of how to find what she needs. “Meet you at the big intersection on Park and 79th.

“ _—bzzt—copy that. Marvel Boy out._ ”

Kate clicks her comm unit off and nods at Loki. “You carry Verity. Miles, you keep Ganke and I’ll keep Katie. This should only take us a few minutes.”

“You’re not taking us home, are you?” Katie asks, just barely loud enough for Miles and Ganke to hear.

Kate purses her lips. “Not yet. If it were just Miles, I _might_ risk it. Maybe call up a spider totem I know since there’s so many of them and I know there was a thing going on with you guys a month or two ago, so you probably know 616’s Jess or something. But there are too many civilians involved now to do that.”

“Katie’s not a civilian,” Ganke says, voice quiet, mumbling. Kate doesn’t thinks she was supposed to hear it at all.

“Oh?” Kate revs up the engine and starts off down the street, not yet fast enough for Miles to start swinging from the buildings. “How do you figure that?”

Ganke opens and closes his mouth a few times, and then turns his head to the side and doesn’t answer. Miles, however, does. “She’s HYDRA.”

Kate slams on the brakes. Everyone else does too, but she ignores them.

“Names.” She says. “Full names, now. I need to check something.”

This isn’t the first time she’s met an evil version of herself. She doubts it’ll be the last. But to find someone this intertwined in superhero politics and sporting the name Katie… there are a lot of people called Katherine in the superhero community, but not _that_ many.

“Miles Morales, Ganke Lee, Katie Bishop.” Miles rattles off. Kate’s not sure why he’s trusting her with his full name this easily. Maybe it’s because she’s Hawkeye. Maybe it’s because she’s helping them. She doesn’t care.

So. Tiny evil her.

“Katie, please tell me your age.” Her voice is cold. Hard. It’s not a voice she likes. It’s a voice she needs.

Distantly, she notes that Loki shivers at that tone. He hasn’t forgotten what she’s like when she’s angry.

“Ah… I’m fourteen.” Katie answers, and Kate fights the urge to relax and tense up at the same time.

“Right. Not old enough to make your own decisions. Still a minor, still a kid, still not a terrorist, just stuck being loyal to some. Or you were.” Kate revs up the engine and starts off down the street again. “Now you’re stuck with me.”

“And you are?” Miles asks, because he’s given her his name and Kate guesses that means she kind of owes him hers.

“Kate Bishop of Earth-616, Hawkeye, leader of the Young Avengers.” She swerves around a corner and grins as, two blocks down, she sees the open doors and ramp to The Marvel. “And in a couple seconds, I’m going to be commander of the Marvel again.”

o.o.o.o.o

She greets Noh-Varr cordially. They aren’t on the best of terms. They aren’t on the worst of them either. They’re… working on it.

“This is Miles, he’s the Spider-man for 1610. That Ganke, a friend of his. And this is a tiny evil me from the same universe as them.”

“Tiny evil you?” Noh asks as he lifts Kate’s bike up into storage.

“She’s HYDRA.” Kate says, shrugging. She’s pretty sure the kids are getting confused by her blasé attitude towards alternate-dimension evil twins, but it’s funny. She’s funny. Haha.

This is hell.

At least there aren’t any rabbits.

“I see.” Noh-Varr turns to Loki, who’s still grinning that unsettling grin from earlier. “Loki.”

“Nnnnnnnnnoh.” Loki draws it out as if testing the word, not entirely sure of whether it’s right or not. “Noh-Varr? Yes. You’re Noh-Varr.”

Noh stares for a second, blinks, and then turns to Kate.

“Amnesia, according to Verity.” Kate shrugs.

Noh-Varr nods, and then turns to the open dock and slides a hand up the wall, activating the near-liquid walls that pour in and fill up the dock, making it airtight once more. “And she remembers the old universe because…?”

“Loki got to me just before the worlds collided.” Verity mutters. Clearing her throat, she loudly asks, “Do you have any towels? My hair’s all wet.”

“I can get them.” Noh-Varr says, heading off down the hallway. “I’ll meet you all in the cockpit, okay?”

“I’ll get us in the air.” Kate nods in his direction and then gestures at everyone else to follow her. “Verity and the kids, you come with me. Loki, you look a mess. Go take a shower to get rid of all the soot, and see if you can fix that tooth. You should know where the bathrooms are.”

“Mm…” Loki sways on the spot for a second, staring upwards at nothing. “Not really?”

Kate shakes her head. “Fine, later then. We just need to—”

There’s a thump on the outside of the ship, followed by the familiar screeching noise of claws tearing at Kree metal, unsuccessful but trying.

“—get off the ground.” She finishes, and quickly turns and starts running down the hall. “Come on.”

o.o.o.o.o

Kate knows the usual reason for someone to remember the world before the final incursion is ‘survived the collision.’ According to David, a couple people got out on a ‘life raft’ of sorts. Some of the gods also made it, those who were already dead or too tied to the multi-verse at large for something this small to change anything.

She and the other Young Avengers survived because they were in a different dimension. Most of the big scientists before were saying that all the universes were dead except those that have now become Battleworld. Kate knows that this is wrong. Kate’s been to those other universes, and many of them have survived. It’s just that none of those universes are close enough for those carefully calibrated machines to sense. They’re close enough for America, though. They’re close enough for Billy.

“Should we go to orbit or straight to the publishing house?” Noh asks, lazily circling through the sky with the shields up. They’re in stealth mode, but Kate’s behind the weapon controls anyway.

“Going into orbit will get the Thor Corps on our case.” Kate shakes her head. “We can’t risk that.”

“Thor Corps?” Miles asks, and Kate’s reminded that these kids, and probably Loki and Verity as well, haven’t been studying the new world the way she has for the past few days.

“They are the current primary military force of the world.” Noh-Varr answers. “Since the collision, the planet’s geography and history have changed. There are multiple iterations of any given individual, depending on where you go, and the planet as a whole is ruled by Victor Von Doom.”

“Who calls himself God.” Kate picks up the narrative, watching the kids’ faces in the reflection off the window. “The Thor Corps aren’t all versions of Thor Odinson. It’s more like a title, and if you can wield one of the hammers, you get added to their ranks. They get one new person a year. Given how the hammers can increase life expectancy, there are a couple hundred of them at any given time.”

“And we would barely be able to fight three.” Loki mutters, staring at the ceiling. His eyes don’t seem to see anything, but he seems lucid enough to pay attention to the conversation.

“Unfortunately, without the others, that’s pretty much the case.” Kate stares out the window at Manhattan’s deserted streets. The city’s normally much more alive this time of day. Any time of day.

God, she hates this.

“So, Doom’s in charge of everything?” Ganke asks, probably just for clarification. “And people are okay with that?”

“As far as Battleworld is concerned, yeah.” Kate focuses on a spot that might be an officer, but they don’t turn towards the Marvel, so she starts searching for movement. “It’s all they’ve ever known. He’s their creation story.”

“That’s… weird.” Miles says, and Kate can think of a lot of words to replace that.

“Unsettling at best.” Verity says. Her towel’s still around her shoulders, keeping her lengthy hair from getting the rest of her cold and wet. “Terrifying at worst. Is there anyone fighting?”

“There are heretics, but they’re hard to find. We think Black Bolt’s in charge, but good luck finding him.” Kate holds up a hand for a moment, eyes scanning the streets below. She reaches forward and flicks a switch to open up communications. “Speed, do you copy?”

“ _Loud and clear, Hawkeye. What’s up? Thought you’d be here by now.”_

Kate bites her lip. “Ran into some complications. There might be a Hulk rampaging in 1610. Sounded like it was headed our way, so I called Noh for a pick-up.”

“ _Us?”_ Tommy asks, voice crackling through the comm unit.

“Picked up some civilians and a hero from 1610. Also Verity and Loki. Everyone remembers the old timeline of their respective universe.”

“I don’t.” Loki says loudly, but Kate ignores him.

“ _We’ve got Loki again? And he remembers? Sweet.”_ There’s the sound of wind in the comm for half a second. “ _I’ve got Billy and Teddy and David here at HQ. Kinda surprised it still exists. What’s your ETA?”_

“Give us ten minutes to make sure we’ve lost all our tails and we’ll make a descent.” Kate says, looking over at Noh to check if that’s reasonable. She may be in charge, but he’s the one that was trained in the usage and control of ships like this in a military situation. Thankfully, he nods.

“ _Gotcha. See ya soon, Hawkeye._ ”

“Roger that.” Kate turns the comm system off and addresses the kids again without looking back at them. “Sorry about that. Right, back to exposition. Noh, could you get that map up?”

“Easily.” Noh does as requested, activating the hologram and ignoring Kate’s eye-roll. “An all-inclusive interactive map of Battleworld.”

“Fun for everyone.” Kate mutters, and starts playing around with the map. “We’re right near the equator right now, which explains why it’s so much warmer than it should be in the city this time of year. Manhattan’s split into 616, 1610, and New Attilan, but most people don’t reference it by the numbers. There’s a lot of conflict between the two sides, which is why we can’t just fly you over. They’ll have eyes on the sky and we don’t have the codes to make them see us as friendlies yet.”

“Oh.” Katie mutters, a small, disappointed noise.

“Yeah, sorry.” Kate isn’t that sorry. “We get the Thor Corps and some officers in to clear the streets of danger for a couple hours a day so people can do their shopping and get from one building to another, but it’s not much. Everyone’s waiting on one of the Doctor Stranges on the planet to come and help clean things up, but nothing doing yet. Personally, I think it might be Doom’s way of punishing the city for housing heretics or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that the city’s… well, slowly dying.”

“I could do it.” Loki says, and his eyes look clearer than they have yet. “It wouldn’t be too difficult. I could, I—I remember that much. I know how, Kate, I promise.”

He’s painfully earnest. Kate wishes she didn’t need to shoot him down. “Sorry, but we’ve got to wait until either Doom’s attention wanders or the world’s put back together the _right_ way. Otherwise, we’ll just bring the Thor Corps down on the city and get innocent people killed. Doom doesn’t stand for heretics. As bad as things are, his wrath would be worse.”

The light in Loki’s eyes dims, and while he still looks more sober than he did when Kate first saw him, pulling Verity along behind him as he danced through the empty streets, that spark of life, of purpose, is gone.

“You need help putting the world back together.” Katie surmises. “You’ve got people, but no one’s powerful enough, are they?”

Kate offers her younger copy a sad smile. “Powerful enough, yes, but with the necessary control? Not yet. Not for years. We can pare that time down if Loki helps with the training, but it’s still a risky move at best.”

“Where did you hide, Kate?” Loki asks right then, apparently deciding that the question couldn’t wait. “Where did you go?”

“Remember that one dimension that didn’t have mutants or the Fantastic Four?” Kate asks. “The number was one followed by a bunch of nines and we got chased by a police officer because you introduced yourself as Loki?”

“No.” Loki says, and a shrug from Verity confirms that as the truth. “But that sounds like 199999. Or one quintuple nine for ease of remembering. MCU for short.”

“I’m… not going to ask. Anyway, we went there, hid out on a roof, watched that dimension get its first introduction to Ultron and the rise of the first generation Maximoff Twins, and then left a couple days later.” Kate taps her knee. “You?”

“Earth-10005.” Loki rattles off. “Or, what used to be Earth-10005. It’s going by TRN-414 for the moment. Someone did something terribly large to alter the timeline, looks like. I think they should have kept the old number, but they’re being dreadfully odd about it.”

“Doesn’t matter. I remember that one. Mostly mutants and their issues.” Kate looks over at the kids again. “Sorry about the tangents. Lots of things to cover right now.”

“How many universes have you _been_ to?” Ganke asks, eyes a little wide at the nonchalance they’d displayed.

Kate glances at Loki and Noh. “That was maybe three dimensions a day, right?”

Noh-Varr nods, thoughtful. “A little less, I think. Overall, I’d say… a good hundred or so dimensions. Probably more, possibly less, but that is a good estimate for how many we visited over the course of approximately five and a half weeks.”

“Good ol’ Miss A,” Loki giggles, leaning over to the side as Noh brings the ship round in a wide turn. “Is she doing alright?”

“Last I heard she was involved in some fight with a giant shark and She-Hulk. I don’t know and I don’t want to know. She’s alive and that’s good enough for me.” Kate’s really not in the mood for grandiose stories of battles with giant sharks and ‘Baroness’ Jennifer Walters. Thankfully, neither is America. “Nico and Dazzler are there too. So is some new superheroine that I can’t remember the name of. They’re holding their own in Arcadia.”

The corresponding part of the map glows and Kate gestures at it vaguely as though to get back to the exposition. “Yeah, that. Each territory has a Baron or Baroness in charge, and they report to Doom. Mostly Barons from what I’ve learned, but Arcadia and Limbo both have Baronesses. And no, it’s not all villains, or people who we can assume were villains in the normal universes. There’s all sorts taking point in these places.”

“Except the Deadlands.” Noh adds cheerily. “That’s just zombies and Ultron bots and the Annhiliation Wave there.”

“And Abigail Brand and Leah.” Kate says, watching Loki’s face carefully. He remains blank for a few seconds, and then comprehension, or perhaps simply memory, dawns. He jerks forwards to stare at her in something between wonder and horror.

“Are you sure?” He asks, voice torn.

Kate knows how important Leah is, was, could have been for Loki. She knows that mentioning Leah probably brought back a lot. It’s why she did it, and it’s why she doesn’t feel guilty for taking advantage of the fact and tearing down Loki’s hopes so soon after. “Not the one you know. David’s been doing research, and we think we know what happened to the one you sent to the ancient past, but the Leah in the Deadlands isn’t the one you know. I’m sorry.”

“I… okay.” Loki sinks back into his seat, and Kate finally feels like he’s back to normal, or close enough. The manic grin with a little too much evil for comfort is gone, but so is the near-drunken happiness that had accompanied it. She should feel guilty, but the situation’s too awful for that.

“We’ll be starting our descent soon,” Noh-Varr announces, and Kate turns back to the map to finish giving the kids a rushed explanation of what’s going on before they land.

o.o.o.o.o

Kate walks into the old building like it’s home, which it might as well have been, once upon a time. She’s greeted by a rush of air and a clap on the back.

“Hey Kate!” Tommy says quickly, and then rushes off to do the same to Verity and Noh, and then stops in front of Loki. “You. We haven’t met.”

“I don’t think so.” Loki tilts his head. “I feel I’d remember you. You’re very pretty.”

Kate resists the urge to facepalm. The end of the world is not the time for romance or getting on your flirty. “Now’s not the time, boys. We’ve got work to do.”

“Wait, no, Kate.” Tommy’s in front of her again. “You gotta introduce the bas!”

“…Bas?” Verity asks after several seconds of Kate giving Tommy a look that clearly states ‘it can wait ‘til the living room.’

“Tommy has this thing where he refers to babies, small things, cute things, animals, and similar things as a ‘ba’. Like ‘bah’ but longer. Short for baby. Basically, he’s patronizing the baby teens.” Kate strides across the room to get to the stairwell and cups her hands around her mouth, ignoring the bickering that springs up behind her as the 1610 kids insist that they’re _totally_ old enough to not be babies.

“OI! DAVID, TEDDY, BILLY, GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE!” She shouts, and is rewarded a few seconds later by several pairs of feet audibly making their ways towards her.

“Kate! You made it back!” Billy floats down the stairs on a trails of sparkles, because melodrama might not be his middle name but it would be fitting if it were. “I was worried that the shadow things would get you.”

“Nah, I made it out alright.” Kate gives him a one-armed hug, mindful of the water still clinging to her, and nodded at David as he came down the stairs. “I brought you a present. It’s shaped like a hipster Viking with amnesia.”

David’s eyes slowly make their way over to Loki, who’s got that stupid grin on again and is conversing with Tommy on some subject or other, occasionally interrupted by Verity. He raises an eyebrow and curls his lip. “Joy.”

“Oh please, you like him.” Kate rolls her eyes for the umpteenth time that day.

“Not the way he’d like me to.” David answers quickly, but comes down the stairs and makes his way over to Tommy and Loki and greets Verity first.

Billy leans over to Kate and whispers in her ear. “Is it just me, or are all three of them…?”

Kate tilts her head. “Flirting? Your brother and our resident geniuses? I don’t know. If it doesn’t keep us from saving the world, I don’t care, either. They can flirt ‘til the cows come home so long as it doesn’t bring Doom knocking on our door.”

Billy shrugs. “Fair enough.”

Teddy finally makes it down, jumping off one of the upstairs walkways and floating down on large green wings. “Hey Kate. I heard you brought tiny people.”

“Are _all_ of you going to make fun of us for our age?” Miles asks in irritation.

“I haven’t,” Noh says, “and neither has Verity.”

“But everyone else has!” Tommy cheerily tosses in. “Because you’re basically babies. Tiny hoomans. Bas.”

“Tommy, enough. Stop baiting the kid with super-strength and spidey powers.” Kate pinches the bridge of her nose, even as she walks over to where the majority of the people in the room seem to have congregated. “Things are looking up from this morning, since we’ve got Loki now, but we’ve also lost America and we’ve got three civilians and a teen hero to look after.”

“Question,” Tommy raises his hand like he’s a kid in school. Kate raises an eyebrow and nods in his direction. “Who _are_ the kids?”

“Miles Morales, Spider-man.” The boy purses his lips before continuing. “Earth-1610, I guess?”

“Yeah.” Kate nods at him, confirming the number.

“Ganke Lee. I’m a friend of Miles’s.” Ganke says, still kind of hiding behind Miles Morales.

Katie stays quiet, and Kate puts a hand on her shoulder and takes care of the introduction. “Tiny evil me from 1610.”

“Evil how?” Tommy questions, because of course.

“Her family’s HYDRA. So is she. But she’s not old enough to make those decisions.”

“If I’m old enough to hero, she’s old enough to make that decision.” Miles says, and the ugly look on his face is evidence enough that something awful must have happened on that front.

“No, you aren’t.” Kate’s voice is stony, once again cold and unmoving. “You are fourteen. You aren’t old enough to be out doing this yet.”

“And how old were you?” Miles demands. “I saw those pictures on the mantle, you were all just as young as I am!”

“Seventeen. On the original Young Avengers, I was seventeen, Eli was sixteen, Cassie was fourteen, and the rest of the boys were fifteen.” Kate can see Miles trying to work up the urge to say something, but her tone is as dead as that memory. “And a year later, we lost Cassie and Jonas. Two of my friends died because we were messing around in a job that we were too young for, with powers we couldn’t always control and training we hadn’t gotten enough of.”

Miles closes his mouth. Kate waits a few more seconds, continuing to level that cold stare at him, and then promptly brings her smile back.

“Anyway, like I said, she’s too young to be responsible for deciding if she’s a terrorist or not yet, so I’m thinking of keeping her.” Kate shrugs. “Given that she remembers the time before the incursion, there’s a good chance her parents don’t remember her anyway.”

“What?” Katie blurts out, spinning out of Kate’s grip and staring at her in horror. “They won’t—”

“No. You didn’t die in the incursions so you weren’t included in the schema when it was rebooted. Other versions of you exist, like me and the Robin Hood-expy in King James’ England, but you, specifically, do not.” Kate explains, and then spreads her arms to encompass the rest of them. “None of us do.”

Miles’s face drops, just as horrified as Katie’s, and Ganke isn’t much better. “But… why?”

“Because you were gone.” Loki pre-empts any other answer. “Because when the universe rebooted, your spare parts weren’t lying around be put back together again. Because for some reason, you were gone.”

“What reason, then?” Katie demands, almost yelling. “What did we do to get stuck here with nothing? Without even our parents?”

Loki tilts his head and stares for a few moments.

“I don’t know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kate's very used to seeing evil versions of herself after the whole Patri-not mess. Another one really isn't new.
> 
> I don't have an explanation for why the kids remember beyond 'Future Billy played around with the past to make it happen because Demiurge."
> 
> Kate's quotes around 'Baroness' are not in disdain for Jennifer, but rather for the title. She hasn't grown up with Battleworld's political set-up, so she's very critical of it, especially because Doom.
> 
> David/Tommy/Loki is called Magically Thinking Faster and I am very fond of it. It's barely hinted at in this fic but I like it, so why not? I'd have mentioned Loki being genderfluid, but the fic's focus was on Kate and Katie and Battleworld, and Loki's involvement was mainly as exposition. Also, the whole thing takes place over the course of maybe half an hour, an hour max.
> 
> That's all. You can find me on tumblr as phoenixyfriend.


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